What is domain authority?
Domain authority is a third-party metric created by the SEO software company Moz that scores a website's likely ranking strength on a scale from 1 to 100. A higher domain authority score means Moz's model predicts the site is more likely to rank well in search results. The critical thing to understand up front: domain authority is Moz's prediction, not a number Google publishes or uses — Google has repeatedly confirmed it has no internal 'domain authority' ranking factor.
The score is calculated mainly from a site's backlink profile — how many other domains link to it, how authoritative those linking domains are, and the overall shape of the link graph. Moz feeds those signals into a machine-learning model trained to correlate with actual Google rankings. So DA is best read as 'how does this site's link profile compare to others?' rather than 'how good is this site?'
Other tools publish their own versions of the same idea under different names: Ahrefs calls it Domain Rating (DR), Semrush calls it Authority Score, and Majestic uses Trust Flow and Citation Flow. They are all proprietary, all approximations, and none of them is the metric Google ranks you on. Treat domain authority as a useful competitive yardstick — and nothing more.
Is domain authority a Google ranking factor?
Domain authority is not a Google ranking factor. Google's own search representatives, including Gary Illyes and John Mueller, have stated for years that Google does not have a single 'domain authority' or 'website authority' score that it uses to rank pages. Moz built domain authority by reverse-engineering correlations with Google's results — it is an outside-in estimate, not an inside-out signal.
This trips people up because Google does care about authority in a broader sense. Google has described concepts like site reputation and E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust), and it absolutely weighs links as one of its core signals. But 'Google values authority' and 'Google uses Moz's DA number' are two very different statements. The first is true; the second is not.
Here is the practical consequence: optimizing to raise your DA score is optimizing for a third-party model, not for Google. Sometimes the two move together — earning great links lifts both your real rankings and your DA. But you can also game DA with low-value links that do nothing for Google, or even hurt you. Chase the underlying cause (relevant links, strong content, trust), not the proxy.
| Dimension | Domain Authority (Moz) | Google's real signals |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns it | Moz, a third-party SEO vendor | Google, internal and undisclosed |
| What it is | A predictive score, 1–100 | Hundreds of ranking signals |
| Is it a ranking factor? | No — Google does not use it | Yes — these are the ranking factors |
| Based on | Mainly backlink profile | Links, content, intent, E-E-A-T, and more |
| Scope | Whole domain | Per-query, per-page |
| Best use | Competitive benchmark | What you actually optimize for |
What is a good domain authority score?
A good domain authority score is relative to your competitors, not an absolute target. DA runs from 1 to 100 on a logarithmic scale, which means climbing from 20 to 30 is far easier than climbing from 70 to 80. Roughly speaking, new sites sit between 1 and 20, established small businesses land in the 30 to 50 range, and major brands and news outlets occupy 70 to 100.
The only benchmark that matters is the one in your actual search results. If the pages outranking you for your target keywords have a DA of 35, you do not need a DA of 80 — you need to be competitive with 35. Comparing your DA to a giant like Wikipedia (DA 100) tells you nothing actionable.
Stop treating DA as a score to maximize. Treat it as a thermometer: it tells you roughly how warm your link profile is versus the sites you compete with, and that is the entire useful function of the number.
Because the score is logarithmic and recalculated as Moz crawls more of the web, your DA can drift up or down even when you do nothing. A two- or three-point dip is usually noise from Moz re-indexing, not a sign you did something wrong. Watch the trend over months, not the number week to week.
How do I increase domain authority?
You increase domain authority by improving the things DA is built to measure — primarily earning more high-quality, relevant backlinks — but the goal should be real rankings, with a higher DA as a side effect. Because DA is essentially a model of your backlink profile, the work that raises it is the same work that raises your standing with Google. Follow this loop:
- Benchmark competitorsNote the DA of pages currently outranking you so you know the real target.
- Fix the foundationPass on-page and technical SEO before earning links so authority is not wasted.
- Build linkable assetsPublish original data, tools, or guides that other sites genuinely want to cite.
- Earn relevant linksPitch digital PR and on-topic publications instead of buying or swapping links.
- Strengthen E-E-A-TAdd named authors, credentials, and consistent brand mentions across the web.
- Track the trendWatch DA and real rankings over months, not week-to-week noise.
The single biggest lever is relevant, editorial links from authoritative sites. One link from a respected industry publication moves your authority more than fifty links from directories or comment spam. Build assets worth linking to — original data, free tools, genuinely useful guides — then earn coverage through digital PR. The full playbook lives in our guide to off-page SEO, and for budget-conscious tactics see how to get backlinks for free.
Avoid the shortcuts that inflate DA without helping Google: buying links, link exchanges, and private blog networks. They can pump a vanity score temporarily, but they expose you to manual penalties and do nothing for the rankings you actually want. The links that survive algorithm updates are the ones you earned honestly. Understanding the difference between nofollow and dofollow links also helps you read your own profile.
Before you invest in link building, confirm your on-page and technical foundations pass — links pointing at a slow, thin, or unindexable page waste their authority. Run a free SEO + GEO audit to check the basics first.
What to focus on instead of DA in 2026
Instead of chasing a domain authority number in 2026, focus on the three things that genuinely move both Google rankings and AI citations: relevant links, helpful content, and demonstrable E-E-A-T. These are the causes that DA only approximates, and they are what answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews actually weigh when deciding whom to cite.
Relevant links over raw link count. A handful of links from on-topic, trusted sites beats a large volume of generic ones. Relevance is the signal both Google and AI systems reward — they want to see that the right communities reference you.
Content that deserves to rank. Original research, clear answers, and genuine expertise attract links naturally and give AI engines something quotable. Self-contained, factual passages are increasingly what gets lifted into AI Overviews — see our breakdown of generative engine optimization.
E-E-A-T and entity trust. Named authors, real credentials, consistent brand mentions, and citations across the web build the kind of authority Google describes and AI tools recognize. Learn the framework in what is E-E-A-T in SEO, and check whether your pages expose a clear author and E-E-A-T signal.
Domain authority can still be a handy gut-check when you size up a prospect's site or scope a competitive niche. Just keep it in its lane: a directional estimate from one vendor, useful for comparison, useless as a north star. Optimize for the search engine and the searcher — DA will follow.